How would they know a human (under narcotics) is in the big heavy box? Can they know? Are there scans performed on big cargo?
I assume for container ships it gets heavy checks because it’s usually going overseas, but what about packages sent within the same country? Is it just unnecessary to do it this way because cartels can move them by car themselves?
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Try picking up a 10kg bottle, and a 10kg weight, that’s generally why post offices don’t need to care.
Container ships are randomly screened, and often have xray or just require the ability to open the container if necessary, so you’re risking a lot.
Boxes are scanned, usually by X-rays, and finding a person inside would be a red flag. Containers also have documentation that says what’s inside, and customs inspectors check them and finding people inside would be a huge problem. Containers move very slowly across the ocean, and you can’t open the doors while at sea, so it would have to be a self-contained “human habitat” inside the container. That’s even easier to find with the sound from the pumps and stuff.
If you get caught, you’re in big trouble. Shipping with false papers is not something that a legitimate freight company would even consider, they could lose their licenses. If you just show up with a container and you’re a new customer, they are 100% going to look inside, to make sure you are following the rules and have the goods secured correctly, because they don’t want to get blamed if some load shifts while being loaded.
They do scan packages and containers are opened for random checks all the time. Of course they can’t check everything, and trafficked people in containers slip through regularly.
Shipping a person in a box is pretty much unfeasible. You can give them some knockout drugs and send them via air cargo, but airport customs scan every single package that comes off a plane. If you’re going by sea cargo, you need to figure out how to pack enough supplies for a person to survive in the box for days or weeks.
For moving domestically there’s really no need to employ shady methods, there’s no ID check whatnot, just plop them in a car and go
The challenges are on two sides:
The first is that there are scans and checks. A lot of automation happens in the more modern ports (which would generally be favored destinations for any human trafficking) like xrays and scans. There are also patrols and other inspections. The penalties are high for human traficking and if you ship containers as a company: you want to be able to continue to do so, so there are a lot of incentives to not do anything illegal.
The second is that humans have needs. They need to breathe, they need to poop/pee, they need water and they need food. None of those primary necessities are really taken care of in a shipping container. And going by sea can take a really long time. Even when you are drugged out of your mind: your body still needs nutrition in order to survive so you’d need an IV or something. Which really means a lot of logistics to get someone across alive (which would be the goal) which also means a lot of cost. You’d have to smuggle someone in to a container and get it on a ship (as per the first point: ship captains don’t want to be human traffickers generally) then you need to keep them alive for x number of days, if not weeks, then you need to somehow get them out of the secure area that is the port. Ports tend to have guards, with dogs that patrol: so getting out is a challenge as well.
Smuggling people is hard, and unless you have a purpose for them: not that profitable. If you think about it: if you really want to force people in to something by smuggling them, you really don’t need to go and go through all that trouble. You could find people closer to home, I can’t think of a single continent that would not have a part of it where people are desperate/impoverished or already (illegally) migrated where criminals could take advantage of them. No need to ship people.
We don’t have to speculate about what would happen, we have this exact situation on video:
Johnny Knoxville’s character tried to ship his grandson in *Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa*, and [the scene is on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA4GCdC_Pas). (I think the movie’s production crew got the owner of the shipping business to agree to the prank, and set up hidden cameras beforehand, but the employees think it’s just a normal day when he walks in.)
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It would be far easier to board a cargo ship several miles out to sea, hitch a ride across the ocean, then have someone meet you in another smaller vessel and smuggle you in via a private dock, completely bypassing major ports and their security. I doubt this would work well these days as you’d still need to avoid coast guard etc. As for post office, big box full of holes so you can breath might raise questions.
The post offices and container ships have strict security measures in place, including x-ray scans and sniffer dogs, to prevent human trafficking. They also work with law enforcement agencies to identify and stop any suspicious packages or shipments. However, it’s important to note that trafficking can still occur through other means such as land transportation.
I know this isn’t an answer to your question, but I want to help you understand there’s a big difference between People Smuggling and Human Trafficking.
What your referring to is more directly People Smuggling. There may also be Trafficking, but the two are separate.
If I pay the cartel to stick me in a container and ship me across the border, and I run off to live a new life in the US, they are People Smuggling. Smuggling is moving someone illegally across a border.
If I’m already in the US and I see a job offer on a farm and take it, but when I get there they take my documents so I can’t run, threaten to beat me if I don’t work, I’ve been Trafficked. Human Trafficking is coercively exploiting someone for a particular purpose – it’s modern slavery. [The UN has a nice infographic ](https://www.unodc.org/res/human-trafficking/2021tipcrime_html/ACT_infographic.jpg)
Trafficking doesn’t *have* to involve transport cross borders, but it often does. You can be trafficked by the cartel smuggling you across the border to force you to work as a domestic.
You can be trafficked within your own town by a “boyfriend” who prostitutes you for drug money.
The key difference is *exploitation*.
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